Thank God The Walking Dead Is Getting An Actually Badass Female Character In Michonne

Part of the reason that I fell out of the habit of watching The Walking Dead‘s second season was the frustrating caricatures that all of the female characters became. It seemed as if all the women were capable of doing was helplessly screwing things up:

Lori almost getting Glenn killed to get Plan B for the baby that might belong to Rick or Shane, we don’t know

Andrea shooting Daryl in the neck because she thought he was a walker

Even little Sophia wandering off and making everyone spend the entire season looking for her, only for her to turn up as a walker

So, I stopped things mid-season and figured that this show had just become far too sexist for my tastes. I didn’t tune in for the season finale to see if Lori or Andrea redeem themselves, but I did hear that we got a special guest: Michonne, the attorney-turned-badass who arrives in the story dragging two chained zombies (her boyfriend and his best friend) as a way to fend off other walkers.

At top is the first look at the AMC series’ Michonne, played by Danai Gurira. As you can see, the costume designers have already emulated the color scheme from the series, and Gurira carries Michonne’s iconic katana.Robert Kirkman, who writes The Walking Dead comics, told EW that at her core, Michonne will be the same fan favorite:

“The essence of the character — her personality, her motives, everything that makes Michonne Michonne — remains intact from the comics. But like a lot of things on the show, there will be little tweaks and differences here and there. We saw that her introduction is slightly different from how it was in the comic, and her interaction with Andrea is really going to be a really cool addition to the character that I think will get television viewers up to speed, and they’ll get to know her a lot faster than comic book readers did.”